I finally got some proper advice about my numb finger, and it's not brilliant. I need to drastically cut my knitting time, and avoid using a mouse with my right index finger. So there probably won't be much knitting action round here for a while. Bah!
But in good news, I do have other crafty activities to indulge in, so there will be lots of sewing and I've got a few knitting designs still to be published, so it's not all bad.
I spent last weekend at The Sunday House in Cornwall, on a quilting weekend. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and stayed until Sunday afternoon, and goodness me, you can get a lot done in that time! We were given 3 quilts to choose from, and I chose to work on the Snowball Quilt. Here is a picture of Anne's sample quilt.
Photo © Anne Baxter, used with permission
This version used Liberty prints for the snowball blocks and then denims for the contrast blocks and borders.
I hunted through my stash, deciding what to use, and came upon the It's a Hoot Layer Cake that I was given for my birthday in April last year. I did some calculations on the back of an envelope, and wondered whether I might use if for both the snowballs, and the white contrast sections of my quilt top. A quick email to Anne confirmed that this would work, and a plan was hatched!
I sliced my Layer Cake up to give 6.5" squares and two sets of 3.5" strips (one set 10" long, and the other 6.5" long).
There was much tedious drawing of lines on squares, but it was a great way of making the snowballs.
And before I knew it, the snowballs were all made!
My workspace transformed into a nine-patch production line! I should be good at nine-patch blocks by now, shouldn't I? A friend almost launched an intervention, thinking that this was yet another in my disappearing nine-patch obsession! Happily not though, and soon things started to take shape.
By late on Saturday afternoon I was piecing them into strips and starting to think that the top might be complete before too long...
I stayed up sewing until 10 and started again at 7.15 on Sunday. When I'm on a mission to finish something there's really no messing about...
The borders went on around breakfast time, and I completed the whole of this 63" quilt top before morning coffee! Which was great, as I had a plan to start on a special quilt for my Gran's 90th birthday present, and it needed some time to get going.
I'm going to leave you with a mean shot of the wrong side of the quilt. I want to get it sandwiched, tied and bound before I show you a proper picture of the finished thing. It won't be done that quickly as Gran's quilt has taken precedence. More on which on Friday...
